The NDP are desperate to get your taxdollars to help fund their political party and they are not about to take ‘no’ for an answer.

It was four years ago that the NDP government in Manitoba introduced the vote-tax. Under the scheme, political parties would receive $1.25 per year for every vote that they received in the previous election. The NDP brought in the vote-tax because quite simply it was a lazy way to get money for their political party. Instead of going out and earning voluntary financial support from individuals by working hard and selling the value of their ideas, the NDP just wanted a taxpayer cheque (which would have amounted to about $250,000 every year) handed to them.

From the beginning the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party rejected the vote-tax and said that we would not take it (about $200,000 annually would have come to the P.C. Party). Our view is that there is already public support for political parties through a system that rebates a percentage of certain expenses (like advertising, signs, office rental) during an election campaign. This is common across Canada and there doesn’t need to be a vote-tax on top of that.

For the past three years, the NDP have been shamed into not taking the money under the vote-tax scheme that they created. They really wanted to, but the public backlash against it was enough to prevent them from taking the money.

But as one of their first acts after being re-elected last fall they introduced legislation that now requires a new ‘commissioner’ to come forward with suggestions on more public taxpayer funding for political parties. Make no mistake; this is nothing but vote-tax 2.0. It is just the NDP determined to find a way to get more taxdollars funneled into their Party. They have made the decision that they are too tired to fundraise and are not willing to work for it.

Progressive Conservative leader Brian Pallister made it very clear last week that regardless of how the NDP try to dress up this new vote-tax, that is all that it is. And he also made it clear that the answer from the Progressive Conservative Party remains the same, ‘no, we will not accept the vote-tax.’

The P.C. Party is committed to earning the support of Manitobans the old fashion way, by earning it. An important part of the political process is going out and listening to people, developing policies, and earning voluntary financial support. The NDP seems determined to try to find a way to get financial support another way, by demanding it through taxdollars.